Grasping for a scientific explanation, she ended up claiming that melanin makes eyes darker, and makes . The students were surprised, but they didnt argue. Thats how it started, and thats how it went all day long. Days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. What can be changed to make the blue eyes and brown eyes experiment 10 Psychological Experiments That Could Never Happen Today - Mental Floss Alan Charles Kors, a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, says Elliott's diversity training is "Orwellian" and singled her out as "the Torquemada of thought reform." 10 Psychological Experiments That Could Never Happen Today. ", 2023 Smithsonian Magazine Privacy Statement Dick DeMarsico/New York World-Telegram & the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection/PhotoQuest/Getty Images, Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, Committee Member - MNF Research Advisory Committee, PhD Scholarship - Uncle Isaac Brown Indigenous Scholarship. She continued to conduct the exercise with her third graders. "Maybe the way to sell the exercise would have been to invite the parents in, to talk about what she'd be doing. She has since refused to answer any of my inquiries. It was typical of Elliott's blunt styleno "Good morning," no small talk. That's what it feels like when you're discriminated against.". When Elliott first conducted the exercise in 1968, brown-eyed students were given special privileges. She then told them that the children with blue eyes were inherently inferior to the children with brown . To Kill A Mockingbird Quotes - 1072 Words | Internet Public Library The answer, in a word, was nothing. Even though the response to the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise was initially negative, it made Jane Elliott a leading figure in diversity training. The experiment, known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment, is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. Why'd they shoot that King?" When you read about this experiment, its hard not to question labels. Elliott began the exercise by dividing her students by eye color. One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle . That same year, Elliott was invited to the White House Conference on Children and Youth to conduct an exercise on adult educators. She has spoken at more than 350 colleges and universities. She told them that people with brown eyes were superior to those with blue eyes, for reasons she made up. It's cruel to white children and will cause them great psychological damage. PPT The Ethics of Using Human Participants - University of New Mexico These differences lead to war and hate. Jane Elliott was a third grade teacher in Riceville, Iowa when she developed the Blue Eyed/ Brown Eyed exercise to teach the effects of racism. Jane Elliott, a teacher and anti-racism activist, performed a direct experiment with the students in her classroom. That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. This time, the participants werent a bunch of elementary school children they were young adults. SpeedyPaper.com 2023 All rights reserved. Proceeding with the experiment, Elliot divided the children into two groups each with nine pupils. They gossiped about her in the hallway. This technique allows researchers to show how many different traits are necessary to create defined groups, and then analyze the subjects behavior within their groups. She traveled to corporations, banks, prisons, schools and military bases. Throughout the day, Elliott continued to give the children with blue eyes special treatment. Melanin, she said, is what causes intelligence. The basic idea was to separate the class into two halves, students with blue eyes and those with brown. Elliott said that blue-eyed people were less intelligent and less clean. That's not true. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . Additionally, the brown-eyed students got to sit in the front of the class, while the blue-eyed kids . Want a quality guarantee? people are better than blue-eyed people. Jane Elliot's experiment explains the reasons for discrimination to a small extent. Nevertheless, Elliott became as famous as a teacher could become in America. "There's a sense of renewal here that I've never seen anywhere else," Elliott says. "I understand this is the first time you've flown?" Nobodys standing here. This bibliography was generated on Cite This For Me on Monday, March 7, 2016. Brown-eyed people. The blue-eyed brown-eyed experiment was conducted by Jane Elliott, a school teacher from Iowa, in which she separated blue eyed children from brown eyed children and took turns making one of the "superior" to the other. It didnt take long for the children to turn on each other. Everyone's tired of her. One key assumption is that the sample population represents an actual society. "He's a bluey! BLUE EYED - Faciliator Guide - Newsreel 10," Elliott said. Racism is not genetical. Shermer and Bloom discuss: "Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes" Jane Elliott famous racism experiment reactions to it (in the classroom, locally, nationally, internationally) whether the "experiment" was really more of a demonstration public interest, from Johnny Carson to Oprah Winfrey the questionable ethics of the experiment what it reveals about tribalism, racism . Children often fight, argue, and sometimes hit each other, but this time they were motivated by eye color. The secretary said the south side of the building was closed, something about waxing the hallways. Hire a professional with VAST experience! Within a few hours of starting the exercise, Elliott noticed big differences in the childrens behavior and how they treated each other. "The racists carry on, so I carry on." The lives and legacies of Dr. Jane Elliott and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are inextricably linked. Elliotts bullying rejoinder to any nonbeliever was to say that however much pain a white person felt after one or two days of made-up discrimination was nothing when compared to what Blacks endure daily. Retrieved from https://speedypaper.com/essays/ethical-concerns-in-jane-elliots-experiment, Free essays can be submitted by anyone, so we do not vouch for their quality. In the documentary, she said that she conducted the original blue-eyes, brown-eyes experiment to make a positive change. Yes, the children felt angry, hurt, betrayed. The mainstream media were complicit in advancing such a simplistic narrative. "It's Riceville 30 years ago. She began this work in The searing story is a cautionary tale that examines power and privilege in and out of the classroom. "I know who she is. "Let me look at you," Elliott said. One scholar asserts that it is "Orwellian" and teaches whites "self-contempt." "Brown-eyed people have more of that chemical in their eyes, so brown-eyed people are better than those with blue eyes," Elliott said. Jane Elliott, the American schoolmarm who would rid us of our racism The video . But in reality, I found in researching for my book Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes that the experiment was a sadistic exhibition of power and authority levers controlled by Elliott. "Your son got what he deserved," the woman said. Many critics that the children were too young to understand the exercise. The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise received national attention shortly after it ended. She repeated the abuse with subsequent classes, and finally turned it into a fully commercial enterprise. The story was then picked up by the Associated Press. The idea of white privilege is closely tied to Elliotts initial question to her students. A class divided: lessons learned - Times Bulletin Is your time best spent reading someone elses essay? A Teacher Held a Famous Racism Exercise in 1968. She's Still at It. "I think third grade was too young for what she did. I think it can. "Malinda? These are the sources and citations used to research Jane Elliott's blue eye brown eye case study is/isn't more ethical than Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment. The people and cultures already present in a place often feel threatened by new immigrants. She pointed out flaws in a student and associated it with . According to the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, 2010 the experiment also violates the principle of Integrity. How do you think the world would change if everyone experienced the perils and setbacks that come with prejudice and discrimination? "I think these children walked in a colored child's moccasins for a day," she was quoted as saying. The first day of the experiment she convinced the children that blue-eyed people were smarter, better and would have more priorities. "Would you like to come on the show?" The nonstop parade of sickening events such as the murder of George Floyd surely is not going to be abated by a quickie experiment led by a white person for the alleged benefit of other whites as was the case with the blue-eyed, brown eyed experiment. Back when she introduced the experiment to her Iowa students more than five decades ago, at least one student had the audacity to challenge Elliotts premise, according to those who were in the classroom at the time. Some guidelines for avoiding or reducing this effect are: In conclusion, Jane Elliotts experiment demonstrates the fragility of coexistence and cooperation. "If this ugly change, if this negative change can happen this quickly, why can't positive change happen that quickly? 9 Unethical Psychological Experiments That Actually Happened When Elliott conducted the exercise the next year, she added something extra to collect data. SpeedyPaper website, please click below to request its removal: Liked this essay sample but need an original one? In the 60s, the United States was in the midst of a social race crisis. Elliott split her students into two groups, based on eye color. Multi-Problem Adolescents: An Increasing Problem, Professor Jane Elliott performed a group experiment, the current problems related to discrimination. It seemed to evince that all white people had to do to learn about racism was restrain themselves from an impulse to engage in made-up cruelty. Disclaimer: SpeedyPaper.com is a custom writing service that provides online on-demand writing work for assistance purposes. The results are mixed. The following are some of her most insightful quotes on these issues. The blue eyes brown eyes study was a study on group prejudice and discrimination conducted by Jane Elliot. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 prompted educator Jane Elliott to create the now-famous "blue eyes/brown eyes exercise.". She described to her colleagues what she'd done, remarking how several of her slower kids with brown eyes had transformed themselves into confident leaders of the class. "No person of any age [was] going to leave my presence with those attitudes unchallenged," Elliott said. The kids in the bottom group became timider and kept to themselves. Jane Elliot's Famous Classroom Experiment: How Eye Color - Thriveworks Ethical & Pedagogical Issues 2. Essay Sample: Ethical Concerns in Jane Elliot's Experiment - SpeedyPaper Three sections were selected to be administered the simulation . The documentary has become a popular teaching tool among teachers, business owners, and even employees at correctional facilities. Many of them noted that when they hear prejudice and discrimination from others, they wish they could whip out those collars and give them the experience they had as third graders. The Associated Press followed up, quoting Elliott as saying she was "dumbfounded" by the exercise's effectiveness. "She said, on the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, 'I don't know why you're doing that I thought it was about time somebody shot that son of a bitch,' " she said. 1. It brings up immediate anger and hatred. She has . The arbitrary division among the students intensified over the course of the experiment, so much so that it actually ended in physical violence. The next day when the tables were turned, "I felt like quitting school. In 1968, schoolteacher Jane Elliott decided to divide her classroom into students with blue eyes and students with brown eyes. Then a picture was taken to remember. The Brown Eyed / Blue Eyed Experiment - 980 Words | Bartleby The hate and discrimination that we see in adults have their origin in their upbringing. Amitai Etzioni, a sociologist at George WashingtonUniversity, says the exercise helps develop character and empathy. On the first day of the two-day experiment, Elliott told the . According to the article is Jane Elliot's experiment to small degree effective. (2010). If you white folks want to be treated the way blacks are in this society, stand. We walked into the principal's office at RicevilleElementary School, Elliott's old haunt. "She could get kids to do anything she wanted them to," he says of Elliott. Written and verified by the psychologist Francisco Roballo. She wanted them to understand what discrimination felt like. The second day, Elliott reversed the groups. a brown-eyed boy asked. A Class Divided - Wikipedia Exploring your mind Blog about psychology and philosophy. The minimal group paradigm has shaped an entire methodology in social psychology. Yet what Elliott did continues to stir controversy. She compromised the APA's Code of Conduct and Ethical Standard because she lied, after that she recanted the lies and kept as they were justified because of her greater purpose. The fact that children are easy to manipulate into acting in a particular manner explains Jane's choice of sample. Strong, Effective and Ethical Lessons | Applied Social Psychology (ASP) Essay Sample: Ethical Concerns in Jane Elliot's Experiment. . Is it even possible today? Directed by William Peters, the episode profiles the Iowa schoolteacher Jane Elliott and her class of third graders, who took part in a class exercise about discrimination and prejudice in 1970 and reunited in the present day to recall the experience. In 2001, Jane Elliott recordedThe Angry Eye,in which she revised and updated her experiment. More than 50 years after she first tried that exercise in her classroom, Elliott, now 87, said she sees much more work left to do to change racist attitudes. Jane Elliot, a third-grade teacher from Lowa town, became troubled with the turn of events and knew that something had to be done about racial discrimination (Danko, 2013). "She got carried away by this possession she developed over human beings. On the first day of the experiment, she declared the brown-eyed group superior and gave them extra privileges like seconds at lunch, extra recess time, and access to the new school playground. And Im only doing this as an exercise that every child knows is an exercise and every child knows is going to end at the end of the day., We learn to be racist, therefore we can learn not to be racist. Elliott pulled out green construction paper armbands and asked each of the blue-eyed kids to wear one. She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. Questioning authority The mainstream media were complicit in advancing such a simplistic narrative. Jane Elliott's brown eye/blue eye experiment starts at 03:10 of A Class Divided. Jane Elliot's 'The Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment' was unethical in that she created a segregated environment in a third grade classroom. But the protests happening now have given her hope. I felt mad. Elliott is nothing if not stubborn. The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise is now known as the inspiration for diversity training in the workplace, making Jane Elliott one of the most influential educators in recent American history. On the "Tonight Show" Carson broke the ice by spoofing Elliott's rural roots. Biddle, B. J. In 1970, a documentary about the exercise was released. Did we fail the blue eyes/brown eyes experiment or did it fail us? A Class Divided | FRONTLINE - PBS The musical is about romance, but it integrates issues of race and discrimination (Norris, 2014), and the song is about how discrimination is taught carefully, in long term. Two Important Psychological Experiments: The Blue Eye/Brown Eye and The brown-eyed children didnt want to play with the blue-eyes during recess. Scores of others did participate. She could feel a chasm forming between the two groups of students. Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes experiment was a turning point in social psychology. Open Document. The blue-eyed participants faced discrimination for two and a half hours. ", Jane shielded her eyes from the morning sun. On the second day, the roles were reversed, and those with brown eyes received special treatment, and the blue-eyed children were made to feel inferior (A Class, 2003). She decided to continue the exercise with her students after lunch. Ms. Elliott, now 87, said she started teaching about racism on April 5, 1968 the day after the Rev. They all either smiled or laughed and nodded.". 296. Stephen Bloom on Jane Elliott's Famous Experiment on Race and Stephen G. Bloom does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. On the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in April 1968, Jane Elliott's third graders from the small, all-white town of Riceville, Iowa, came to class . In the most uncomfortable moments, Elliott reminds the students of violent acts caused by racism or homophobia. The test also included violation of consent in which participation of the children was made involuntarily. "Eye color, hair color and skin color are caused by a chemical," Elliott went on, writing MELANIN on the blackboard. When Differences Matter | Facing History and Ourselves Jane Elliott on The Tonight Show on May 31, 1968. Lasting Impact of Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment, Words are the most powerful weapon devised by humankind. She was a local girl and the other teachers were intimidated by her success. With a couple of basic and arbitrary examples, Elliott made the case that brown-eyed people were better. Elliott, who is white, separated the students into two groupsthose with blue eyes and those with brown eyes. Jane Elliott, a teacher and anti-racism activist, performed a direct experiment with the students in her classroom. To get her points across, Elliott hurled insults at workshop participants, particularly those who were white and had blue eyes. To this day, at the age of 86, Jane Elliott continues this work. Elliott? Would you like to find out? one girl asked. "She was an excellent school teacher, but she has a way about her," says 90-year-old Riceville native Patricia Bodenham, who has known Elliott since Jane was a baby. I often think about Paul Bodensteiner. Words are the most powerful weapon devised by humankind. Theyd have to use paper cups if they drank from the water fountain. This way, she successfully created two distinct groups in her classroom: The consequences of the minimal group became evident very quickly. The effectiveness of a well-known prejudice-reduction simulation activity, "Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes," was assessed as a tool for changing the attitudes of nonblack teacher education students toward blacks. Provide your email for sample delivery, You agree to receive our emails and consent to our Terms & Conditions, Order an essay on this subject and get a 100% original paper. From the University of California Press website: The never-before-told true story of Jane Elliott and the "Blue-Eyes, Brown-Eyes Experiment" she made world-famous, using eye color to simulate racism. Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes: Jane Elliott's controversial classroom experiment Fourteen years later, the students featured in The Eye of the Storm reunited and discussed their experiences with Elliott. What Was the Purpose of the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? Module 2 Discussion_ Are We Still Divided_ Blue Eyes_Brown Eyes_ A 3rd Why was the Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment considered unethical in psychology? PracticalPsychology. She asked her students, who were all white, whether or not they knew what it felt like to be judged by the color of their skin. Ethical issues were 1/3 of the participants refused to take the head off the rat . "You can see the look on their faces. Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment Ethical? In Building Moral Intelligence: The Seven Essential Virtues That Teach Kids to Do the Right Things, educational psychologist Michele Borda says it "teaches our children to counter stereotypes before they become full-fledged, lasting prejudices and to recognize that every human being has the right to be treated with respect." Did We Fail the Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes ExperimentOr Did It Fail Us? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER! This is the phrase that inspired one of the most well-known experiments in education. The results showed a reversal effect in which the blue-eyed students showed signs of inferiority and low self-esteem. The day after Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination in 1968, Jane Elliott, a schoolteacher in rural Iowa, introduced to her all-white third-grade class a shocking experiment to demonstrate . Two students even got into a physical altercation. The blue-eyed children were told not to do their homework because, even if they answered all the questions, theyd probably forget to bring the assignment back to class. She told them that people with brown eyes were superior to those with blue eyes, for reasons she made up. Stripping away the veneer of the experiment, what was left had nothing to do with race. The blue eye brown eye experiment. Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes: The Jane Society made them believe they were better than other people for arbitrary reasons such as skin color or gender. She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. PracticalPie.com is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program. Introduction. "They can't forget me," she said, "and because of who they are, they can't forgive me. (2022, Apr 06). Focusing on ethics the experiment violated some of the principles and codes of conduct established by the American Psychological Association. One student answers, since the day I was born. Throughout the entire experiment, Elliott leads frank conversations about race and discrimination. Jane Elliott's blue eye brown eye case study is/isn't more ethical than You must get the parents first. Before she could answer, another boy piped up: "If she didn't have blue eyes, she'd be the principal or the superintendent.". The more melanin, the darker the person's eyesand the smarter the person. ", For years scholars have evaluated Elliott's exercise, seeking to determine if it reduces racial prejudice in participants or poses a psychological risk to them. Having in mind that it would be difficult to explain to third graders about discrimination, she needed to be more practical so that her student could understand how discrimination and prejudice felt. Blue eyes, brown eyes: Jane Elliott's race experiment 50 years later The blue-eyed participants faced discrimination for two and a half hours. Mental Floss, 4. Barbie had to have a Ken, so Elliott picked from the audience a tall, handsome man and accused him of doing the same things with his female subordinates, Pasicznyk said. The same experiment was also used a couple of years later with adults. The anti-racism sessions Elliott led were intense. (She prefers the term "exercise.") When some of the . Blue-eyed people. "People of other color groups seem to understand," she said. He printed them under the headline "How Discrimination Feels." This paradigm helps understand the current problems related to discrimination. Jane Elliott, an educator and anti-racism activist, first conducted her blue eyes/brown eyes exercise in her third-grade classroom in Iowa in 1968. Back in the classroom, Elliott's experiment had taken on a life of its own. Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes: A Cautionary Tale of Race and Brutality Blue Eyes vs. Brown Eyes Experiment. However, both Mary and Zeke have brown eyes. Regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status, decision making in psychology should protect individual rights and welfare to eliminate potential biases. A Class Divided: An Experiment Involving Race and Prejudice Almost immediately, it was apparent that she had created segregation and prejudice given that the blue-eyed students began exhibiting signs of dominion and superiority. In 2001, she was still trying to make a change. One of the ways Hitler decided who went into the gas chamber was eye color, Elliott said in a later speech. ", Elliott says the role of a teacher is to enhance students' moral development. She has led training sessions at General Electric, Exxon, AT&T, IBM and other corporations, and has lectured to the IRS, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Department of Education and the Postal Service. Days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., she pioneered an experiment to show her all-white class of third graders what it was like to be Black in America. They needed not acknowledge their privilege or reflect on it. At recess, three brown-eyed girls ganged up on her. The smell of the crops and loam and topsoil and manure wafted though the open door. Still, Elliott said the last few years have brought out America's worst racist tendencies.